Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard, the end of the trial: the arguments to convince the Jury

Lawyers for Johnny Depp and Amber Heard filed closing arguments with a Virginia jury on Depp’s defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife.

After six weeks of testimony at the libel trial in which Johnny Depp and Amber Heard attacked each other with bad details about their brief marriage, both sides asked the jury the same thing: They want to go back his life.

Heard “ruined his life by falsely telling the world that she was a survivor of domestic abuse done by Mr. Depp,” Depp’s lawyer Camille Vasquez said in closing arguments in the actor’s defamation case against his ex -wife.

Meanwhile, Heard’s lawyers say Depp ruined Heard’s life by conducting a smear campaign against him when he filed for divorce and publicly accused him of assault in 2016.

“In Mr. Depp’s world, you’re not going to leave Mr. Depp,” Heard’s attorney J. Benjamin Rottenborn said. “If you do, he will start a global campaign of shame against you.”

Depp hopes the trial will help restore his reputation, although it has been a spectacle that has revealed details of a false marriage, with television cameras in court taking every detail of the increasingly interested audience, with fans debating. on social media about the case and with people lining up last night for one of the coveted court venues.

“For Mr. Depp this case was never about money,” Depp’s attorney, Benjamin Chew said. ‘.

Depp sued Heard of $ 50 million in Fairfax County Circuit Court in Virginia over an op-ed he published in The Washington Post in December 2018 describing himself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse. ” His lawyers say the article defamed the actor even though he was not named.

Heard filed a $ 100 million countersuit against the former “Pirates of the Caribbean” star after his lawyer called his accusations fabricated. Although the countersuit received less attention at trial, Heard’s attorney Elaine Bredehoft said it provided a way for the jury to pay Heard for the abuse Depp did to him, even after they separated. , by organizing a smear campaign.

“We demand that you finally hold this person accountable,” he told the jury. “He has never accepted responsibility for anything in his life.”

The seven -member civil jury began its deliberations Friday afternoon.

Depp said he did not hurt Heard and he made the abuse allegations to gain an advantage over their divorce. The actor said that Heard used to physically attack him.

Definitions

“Someone is abusing this court, but not Mr. Depp,” Vasquez said.

During the trial, Heard testified about more than a dozen episodes of physical and sexual abuse that Depp allegedly committed against him.

Vasquez said, in his final argument, that Heard had to change his testimony about the first time he said he had been beaten. Heard said Depp punched him after he accidentally laughed at one of the actor’s tattoos. Heard first said it happened in 2013 _ after a year of courtship and fairytale romance _ but later corrected himself to say it happened in 2012, very early in their relationship.

“Now in this court a whole year of magic is suddenly erased,” Vasquez said.

The jury saw several photos of Heard with marks and bruises on his face, but some photos showed only small redness, others more severe bruises.

Vasquez accused Heard of altering the photos and said the evidence that Heard altered some of his alleged injuries shows that all of his allegations of abuse were baseless.

“You can believe him all or nothing,” he said. “She could be the victim of ugly, horrible abuse, or she could be a woman willing to say anything.”

In his final argument, Rottenborn said that digging into the evidence of Heard’s abuse ignores the fact that there is too much evidence on his part and sends a dangerous message to victims of domestic abuse.

“If you don’t take pictures, it’s not going to happen,” Rottenborn said. “If you take pictures, they’re fake. If you don’t tell your friends, they’re lying. If you tell your friends, they’re part of the lie. ”

And he rejected Vasquez’s suggestion that if the jury thinks Heard may be altering a version of a single act of abuse, they should reject everything he says. He said Depp’s defamation lawsuit should have failed if Heard had suffered even one incident of abuse.

“They’re trying to trick them into thinking Amber has to be perfect to win,” Rottenborn said.

In their deliberations, the jury needs to focus not only on whether there has been abuse, but on whether Heard’s opinion can be considered legally defamatory. The article itself focuses primarily on domestic abuse policy issues, but Depp’s lawyers pointed to two excerpts here, as well as an online headline, in which they argue defaming Depp.

In the opening excerpt, Heard wrote that “two years ago I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of the anger of our culture.” Depp’s lawyers called it a clear reference to Depp, Well, Heard publicly accused Depp of domestic violence in 2016 _ two years before the article was written.

In the second excerpt, he said, “I have the rare advantage of real-time insight into how institutions protect men accused of abuse.”

The internet headline reads: “Amber Heard: I spoke out against sexual violence _ and addressed the wrath of our culture.”

“He didn’t mention his name. He didn’t,” Chew said. “Everyone knows very well who and what Mrs. Heard is referring to.”

Heard’s lawyers said Heard could not be held accountable for the headline because he did not write it, and the two excerpts in the article are not about the abuse allegations themselves, but about how Heard’s life changed afterwards. of allegations.

Rottenborn told the jury that even if they were likely to believe Depp’s statement that he did not abuse Heard, he could still win the case because he had a right, through the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (which promotes free speech) , to discuss public affairs. .

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